New Zealand to donate P159 M to Phl Red Cross

New Zealand will donate P159 million to the Philippine Red Cross to help fund the construction of additional warehouses and logistics centers all over the country.

Prime Minister John Key announced the donation yesterday at the inauguration of PRC’s new logistics and multi- purpose center in Mandaluyong City.

According to Key, he had intended to visit the Philippines last year to see and help in the recovery operations for areas devastated by Super Typhoon Yolanda ( Haiyan).

“I’m glad I finally made the trip. We will continue to provide assistance to the Philippine Red Cross for whatever they need,” Key said.

The New Zealand prime minister was among 21 leaders who attended the recent Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation ( APEC) summit in Manila.

PRC chairman Dick Gordon said the new PRC logistics and multipurpose center would serve as a temporary hospital that can accommodate about 400 beds and patients. It will also function as a warehouse and storage area for relief goods, supplies and equipment as well as for donations from other countries.

The new facility, located at the back of PRC’s national headquarters in Mandaluyong, will also serve as a training facility and multipurpose activity center, he said.

“Our partnership with New Zealand started even before Typhoon Yolanda came, and the importance of the partnership became of even greater importance after that typhoon as we all saw the importance of having logistics warehouses in strategic areas where we can preposition relief items and equipment for faster and more efficient disaster response,” Gordon said.

The New Zealand ministry of foreign affairs and trade and the PRC have been working together since July 2013 in the retrofitting of PRC’s strategic warehouses to help improve the humanitarian organization’s overall efficiency and capabilities during emergencies.

The agreement between the NZ ministry and PRC also aims to improve the latter’ s logistics training and prepositioning of stocks of non- food items ( NFIs) like plastic mats, blankets, tarpaulins, jerry cans, mosquito nets, hygiene kits and kitchen sets. The warehouse features storage area with pallets and racking system, which makes the storage capacity twice the volume for distribution.

So far, the retrofitting of PRC’s strategic warehouses in Subic, Laoag and Cebu have been completed.

The improvement of the three remaining warehouses in Batangas, Cagayan de Oro and Mandaluyong will be finished before the year ends.

“We are grateful to the contribution of the New Zealand government through the New Zealand Aid Program in ensuring that we at the Philippine Red Cross will be able to efficiently and sufficiently respond to disasters and emergencies with our fully equipped logistics warehouses,” Gordon said.